LAST CZAR BURIED: TALE OF 2 RUSSIAS - The New York Times The New York Times World |LAST CZAR BURIED: TALE OF 2 RUSSIAS Search Continue reading the main story The Russians buried Czar Nicholas II today in true imperial fashion, beneath a ceiling of cherubim peeking from clouds, in a cathedral of mountainous oak and linden carvings sheathed in gold, among the white marble tombs of the czars who bestrode his empire for three centuries. And they buried him in the style of modern Russia, too: under imitation marble markers because there is no money for genuine stone; in a cathedral plundered by revolutionaries decades ago and half-restored today; at the center of enduring conflicts over whether the nation was venerating a monarch, a tyrant or even a fraud. President Boris N. Yeltsin had planned the ceremony in the hope that it would bury those conflicts too, and reunite the present with a past that its old Soviet rulers had suppressed and rewritten for 75 years.

By its end, he had scored a personal triumph with a brief but powerful speech about reconciliation in a Russia forever split into ''us and them'' -- czars and peasants, Communists and workers, haves and have-nots. But his ultimate goal seemed still out of reach. The two Russias briefly came together inside a thick-walled fortress on the bank of the Neva River here, where the remains of Nicholas, most of his family and four of his servants were lowered into a single white crypt in SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral. Continue reading the main story It was 80 years to the day since the imperial family and its retinue had been shot, doused with acid and dumped into a pit on a Ural Mountains road on the personal order of Lenin, the Communist leader who had seized the Czar's kingdom. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The town where they died -- Yekaterinburg, named after Nicholas's ancestor Catherine I -- was renamed Sverdlovsk, after Yakov M. Sverdlov, the Bolshevik who signed the telegram ordering the deaths. The whereabouts of the bodies was tantamount to a state secret until the Soviet Union collapsed and Mr.

Yeltsin ordered them exhumed in 1991. Today's somber service laid to rest all but two of the executed Romanovs, the Czar's heir, Alexei, and a daughter, Marie. Their bodies are believed to have been burned and buried near their parents, but have not been found. Mr. Yeltsin was first among 400 dignitaries and members of the Romanov family, the imperial dynasty that ended with Nicholas, who watched silently from among the tombs of past czars and czarinas during the 90-minute service. Beneath enormous chandeliers in the brick-and-stone church, a choir sang as Russian Orthodox priests, robed in gold, waved censers of burning incense over the oak coffins topped with crosses, which were arranged on a pedestal in the building's center. Then, one by one, the undersized coffins were carried into an adjacent room and stacked in the freshly dug vault -- the remains of the servants on the bottom, then the family, and finally the Czar himself atop them.

They were nine in all: Alouzy Tropp, the Czar's valet; Eugene Botkin, the royal physician; Ivan Kharitonov, a cook; Anna Demidova, a lady-in-waiting; then three of the Czar's four daughters -- Anastasia, Olga and Tatiana -- and Czar Nicholas and his wife, Alexandra. The final two coffins were draped in yellow banners bearing the imperial spread eagle, which were removed for historical safekeeping. More than 50 surviving members of the Romanov family slowly entered the room, each throwing a handful of white sand on the coffins in a traditional gesture of farewell. To the peal of cathedral bells that Czar Nicholas had ordered installed 95 years ago, cannon fired 19 ear-splitting blasts -- two short of the normal 21-gun salute, because Nicholas had abdicated his throne before his death -- and the service ended. Mr. Yeltsin's appearance was both an act of repentance and a moment of supreme irony. As the Communist Party boss in Sverdlovsk, Mr. Yeltsin issued an order in July 1977 to raze the house in whose cellar the executions were carried out.

Soviet leaders feared then that the home might become a shrine of sorts for those who resisted Communist rule. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Today, in an emotional speech, he said it was time for the Russian people to confront fully what he called ''one of the most shameful episodes in our history.'' ''Those who committed this crime are as guilty as are those who approved of it for decades,'' he said. ''We are all guilty. It is impossible to lie to ourselves by justifying senseless cruelty on political grounds. The shooting of the Romanov family is a result of an uncompromising split in Russian society into 'us' and 'them.' The results of this split can be seen even now.'' Mr. Yeltsin's remarks seemed directed mostly at the Communist regime that executed the Czar in 1918 and controlled Russia for 73 more years. But he did not spare the Romanov dynasty, whose members could rule with an iron hand and scant regard for their subjects' lives. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to.

Sign Up Privacy Policy ''Many glorious pages of Russian history were connected with the Romanovs,'' he said, ''but with this name is connected one of the most bitter lessons: Any attempt to change life through violence is condemned to failure. ''We must end the century which has been an age of blood and violence in Russia with repentance and peace, regardless of political views, ethnic or religious belonging.'' Mr. Yeltsin could have been talking about the funeral itself. Conceived as an act of reconciliation, it had become such a political and religious battleground in recent weeks that the President had said he would not attend. He relented only on Thursday, barely 24 hours before the service began. The Communist Party, the major force in both houses of Parliament, attacked the ceremony as undue justice for a tyrant who was justifiably executed. Unspoken was the concern that the next burial might be that of his executor, Lenin, who doggedly clings to his honored spot in a display case in Red Square. Yuri M. Luzhkov, the Mayor of Moscow, shunned the ceremony after his city lost the competition for the Czar's final resting place. Ultra-nationalists like Vladimir V.

Zhirinovsky, a member of Parliament, enthusiastically backed the burial, dimming its luster among moderates. And the Russian Orthodox Church refused to endorse it on the grounds that the bones being interred may not be those of the Czar. The church is mending relations with a splinter sect, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, which insists that it has the only true remains: a finger from the Czar's wife or one of his daughters. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The Orthodox Church agreed to conduct today's service, but its priests never mentioned the victims by name. Its position has profoundly influenced ordinary Russians, many of whom now agree that the remains are frauds, though most experts accept the DNA evidence identifying the remains. The distrust has led to an exodus of political support for the service that only Mr. Yeltsin's reappearance managed to stem. It did not help that services for the Czar, who lived in St. Petersburg's endless array of palaces in an era of famine and privation, came at a time of renewed hardship. Communists argued that the Czar deserved no honor until his survivors return the riches they took when they fled the country.

In the magnificent cathedral in which the funeral was held, restoration of the altar is unfinished, and repairs to the steeple are barely begun, because of a shortage of money. At the swank Astoria Hotel on one of the city's squares, Nicholas's descendants and some who claimed to be descendants gathered en masse this morning, looking every inch the wealthy and cultured exiles that many of them are. ''Russia is a great country,'' said Nikolai Romanov, 75, who lives in Switzerland and is unofficial spokesman for the clan, ''and I see a great and happy future for it. So far it's like a jigsaw puzzle. We're putting in some small pieces, and we can see fragments of blue sky. Eventually the whole picture will be put together. And it will be a bright and beautiful picture.'' Some Russians were unimpressed. ''I'll tell you the truth: When the big people are fighting and making peace, the little people suffer,'' Vladimir Lille, a painter, said of the brouhaha. ''It's all right for me.

Let them play their games.'' As she waited at a bus stop near the fortress, Anya Pulikova, 18, said: ''I heard that it hasn't been proved that they were the Czar's remains. But to me, it's all the same. I don't think it has any relevance to my life.'' In truth, few experts question extensive DNA tests in three countries that a Government commission said had all but ruled out the chance that the remains are not those of the royal family and their servants. ''In Russia, a Government commission is reason for the majority of people to begin to mistrust the situation,'' said Edvard S. Radzinsky, an author and historian who helped lead efforts to determine the fate of the Romanovs. ''It's like Kafka. We live in a Kafka world.'' Funeral of Nicholas II Romanov in St. Petersburg, Russia MAJOR EVENT OF THE SUMMER OF 1998: FUNERAL OF THE LAST RUSSIAN TZAR NICHOLAS II AND HIS FAMILY On July 17, 1998 the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family will be buried in St.

Catherine Chapel (Ekaterininsky Predel) of Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. This will happen precisely 80 years after Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their children and several close servants were murdered by local Bolsheviks in the town of Yekaterinburg, on July 17, 1918. Nicholas II Romanov ruled Russia from 1895 to 1917 and lost power during Russia's February Revolution, when in the spring of 1917 he had to abdicate. The power was transferred to the Provisional Government, but shortly after that Nicholas Romanov and his family were arrested and were kept under close surveillance at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, near the Russian capital Petrograd (now St. Petersburg). Romanovs were then transported to inner Russia to prevent them from running away abroad or from being captured by the approaching German troops. Russia's last tzar and his family spent the last months in Yekaterinburg. On July 17, 1918 they were "executed" on the orders of the local authorities and, allegedly, of the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.

The bodies of Romanovs were then thrown into one of abandoned mines. WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN? - Funeral Plan In the end of May Russian authorities have released the details of the burial procedure. Changes to this procedure are possible if not to say likely (Russia did not bury a Tzar for over 100 years - since 1895). Here is a brief outline of the burial procedure: The funeral ceremony will begin on July 15 in Yekaterinburg. After several church services held in Yekaterinburg Cathedral of Ascension of the Lord, on July 16 coffins with the remains of Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, three of their five children and four of their servants will be transported to St. Petersburg on board of a special plane. Another plane will carry relatives of the Romanovs, guests and journalists. Upon arrival in St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport, coffins with Royal remains will be greeted by guard of honor and military band, playing a funeral march.

The funeral procession will go along Pulkovskoye Shosse (highway) to Ploschad Pobedy (Victory Square) and then up Moskovsky Prospekt, via 1st Krasnoarmeyskaya Ulitsa, Izmaylovsky Prospekt, and Voznesensky Prospekt to Isaakievskaya Ploschad (St. Isaac's Square). From there the procession will go to Ploschad Dekabristov, turn right to Admiralteyskaya Naberezhnaya (embankment), Dvortsovaya Naberzhnaya and cross Troitsky (Trinity) Bridge to Troitskaya Ploschad. Military cadets and officers in ceremonial dress will stand along both sides of Admiralteyskaya and Dvortsovaya Embankments. The procession will stop at Troitskaya Ploschad (Trinity Square) opposite Peter and Paul Fortress and will be greeted by the clergy during which psalms will be sung. Coffins will be unloaded and the procession will enter Peter and Paul Fortress across Ioannovsky Bridge.

The bridge will be decorated with cypress wreaths and branches of evergreen trees. The fortress will be closed to the public. Officers will carry coffins to pedestals in Peter and Paul Cathedral, where all Russian tzars from Peter the Great to Alexander III were buried. At 5 pm a requiem service will begin. Nicholas II, his family and servants will be buried in St. Catherine Chapel of Peter and Paul Cathedral on Friday, July 17. On that day the participants of the funeral will enter Peter and Paul Cathedral at 11 am. Church bells will continue ringing till noon. At 12 o'clock sharp three single gunshots will be fired and the clergy will begin the ceremony for the dead. The coffins will be carried to St. Catherine Chapel, with servants first ending with Nicholas II. At the moment the coffins are lowered, an army unit will fire a 19-volley salute. White sand, to represent earth, will be thrown into the burial vault. N.B.! The public may not enter the fortress from 5 pm on July 15, until 11 am on July 18. They may visit the St.

Catherine Chapel of Peter and Paul Cathedral from 11 am on July 18, until 5 pm on July 20. NOTE ON SECURITY Because the funeral of Nicholas II is such a big and controversial event, heavy policing of the city will be introduced in order to prevent public disturbances and terrorist attacks. It is a good idea to carry your passport with you (of course in a safe inside pocket). St. Petersburg is generally safer than Moscow, New York or Maiami, but events which draw substantial crowds are never 100% safe. Watch out for occasional pickpocket and keep your valuables, wallets and cameras in a safe place. If you have any questions, post 'em at Russia to exhume father of last Tsar to solve century-old Bolshevik murder of Romanovs — RT News “It [the burial vault] contains not only a coffin with the Tsar's body but also a separate grave with the tsar's embalmed vital organs,” Marina Logunova, senior research associate at the St. Petersburg State History Museum, told TASS. Also Alexander III’s impressive height – 1.93 meters – could create additional problems, Logunova added.

"It can be assumed that the burial vault is larger than the tombstone, and that can create risks for the nearby graves….” Russia’s last Tsar exhumed, case reopened into murder of Romanov family pic.twitter.com/C7qgxquqhH — RT (@RT_com) September 24, 2015 If the experts prove the remains found in Ekaterinburg are genuine and related to Alexander III, then one more riddle of the slain Tsar family would be solved. At that point, all seven members of the Tsar’s family will be buried together. Nicholas II, his wife and five children, including his only son and heir, Alexey, were killed in 1918 following the 1917 Revolution. Their bodies were thrown down a mine shaft and then quickly buried somewhere near Ekaterinburg in the Urals. For almost a century no one knew where exactly the Tsar family was buried. However, in 1991 the remains of Nicholas II, his wife and three daughters were discovered in a mass grave near Ekaterinburg.

Two years later, in 1993, investigators opened a case into the murder of the Romanov family to identify the suspected remains of the Tsar’s family and their retinue. The case was closed in 1998 “owing to the deaths of the perpetrators of the crime.” However, the case was re-opened in 2007 when new evidence appeared – the remains of Nicholas II’s last two children were discovered - daughter Maria and his only son Aleksey who suffered from hemophilia. Though the Church has declared Nicholas II, his wife and three daughters as saints, it still won’t recognize the identities of Alexey and Maria. Case Closed on Murders of Last Russian Czar’s Family Case Closed on Murders of Last Russian Czar’s Family By Jeremy Hsu | March 2, 2009 04:34am ET MORE Czar Nicholas II sits in this 1910 photo with Empress Alexandra and five children. Daughters in the photo are Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, along with son and Crown Prince Alexei.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons/German National Archive Confusion reigned for 90 years about a possible surviving daughter of Czar Nicholas II, the last Imperial ruler of Russia. Now a public report reveals how modern investigators established that neither Anastasia nor the czar's other children found a fairy tale ending. DNA analysis linked a known grave for most of the murdered Romanov family with two human remains found in 2007. Russian authorities confirmed the discovered bodies as the last missing children in mid-2008, after getting results from labs in Russia and the U.S. "I was requested to do the study," said Evgeny Rogaev, a molecular geneticist at the University of Massachusetts lab who took the lead on the scientific investigation . "It's a difficult case." The report's final evidence was published online last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A gruesome find in the mountains Bolsheviks killed Czar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra and their five children in 1918 as Russia plunged into bitter civil war. Most of the Romanovs and several servants ended up in an unmarked grave near Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains, 900 miles east of Moscow.

But Russian anthropologists searching for the last two missing Romanov children found possible remains just several hundred feet from the first grave, almost 90 years after the deaths of the Imperial family. A small horror awaited the discovery team. The killers had tried to disfigure the bodies with both fire and sulfuric acid, possibly to conceal the victims' identities or condition at time of death. That made for a very tricky job when the Russian Prosecutor-General's office called on Rogaev to help solve the case. "The problem was the bones from the second grave, because the quality was very bad from most of the samples," Rogaev told LiveScience. "We just selected a few that could give us some results." The mother's legacy Rogaev had previously applied his skills to forensic science in 1997, when a Russian government asked him to verify the identities of Czar Nicholas II and his family from the first grave. Now he had an even greater scientific arsenal to help establish the final fates of all the Romanov children. One piece of evidence came from mitochondrial DNA. Unlike the more familiar autosomal DNA, which people inherit as a jumbled recombination of genetic material from both parents, mitochondrial DNA is only passed down from mothers to children.

That provided a maternal lineage which Rogaev and other researchers used to identify the Romanov children through the late Empress Alexandra. Forensic investigators previously relied on short sequence matches using mitochondrial DNA in the 1990s, but Rogaev used the latest technological advances to put together a complete analysis of the mitochondrial genomes belonging to the Imperial family. "It's not just 200-400 base pairs [building blocks of DNA molecules], but 16,500 or more base pairs," Rogaev noted. "It's like comparing just having sentences to having all the chapters of a book." Living and the dead Another key connection came through the male Y chromosomes of the Romanov line. Examination of the bones from the second site turned up one male and one female, which meant that the lab could compare the Y-chromosome markers from the supposed body of Crown Prince Alexei with those of Czar Nicholas II. "If everything was as we expected, the Y chromosome profiles should match," Rogaev said. "And they did." Rogaev also compared the grave evidence with the Y-chromosome markers of living male descendants connected to the great grandfather of Czar Nicholas II.

He then confirmed that the Y-chromosome markers represented a unique genetic marker of the Romanovs, by checking existing genetic databases from various populations. But a final piece of the puzzle arose from an unexpected source – a bloodstained shirt belonging to Czar Nicholas II, carefully preserved in a museum. The blood connection Nicholas II survived an assassination attempt during a visit to Osaka, Japan, in 1891, while he was still Russian heir to the throne. His bloodstained shirt ended up as a historical relic in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Rogaev did not expect much from the blood stain, given that almost a century's worth of exposure to ultraviolet light and various temperature conditions should have destroyed much of the DNA. "Certainly we did not count on this," Rogaev said. "But surprisingly we got very good DNA profiles, so the estimates of probability for the identification of the remains of Nicholas II are extremely high." Confirmation of the father's identity allows researchers to firmly say that the second site contains the bodies of Crown Prince Alexei and one of his older sisters. Forensic scientists say that the sister was likely Maria, although some initially thought it could be Anastasia.

Russian authorities have yet to decide what to do with these final remains of the Romanov dynasty. But the other members of the Imperial family were finally laid to rest in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg in 1998. Edited at 10:20 am ET on Wed 3/4 REBURIAL OF MARIA FEODOROVNA REBURIAL OF MARIA FEODOROVNA Nicholas II's mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, is to be reburied in the cathedral in September 2006; she was a Danish princess who married Czar Alexander III and went into exile in Denmark after the Russian Revolution. She died in Denmark and was buried in the royal mausoleum there at Roskilde. This event was occurring as I am writing this, and there are several news stories on the web, though they may not remain there. A few are collected here.

Empress Maria Fyodorovna's remains returned to Russia by Marina Koreneva Tue Sep 26, 5:53 AM ET SAINT PETERSBURG (AFP) - The remains of Maria Fyodorovna, mother of Russia's last tsar, arrived in Russia aboard a Danish naval frigate, 87 years after she fled the Bolshevik revolution, organisers have said. The coffin arrived in the Baltic port of Kronstadt to a 31-gun salute and was transferred to a Russian naval vessel, an official organiser told AFP Tuesday. Escorted by Danish and Russian officials as well as representatives of the imperial Romanov family, the remains were taken to the tsars' summer residence of Peterhof at the start of two days of ceremonies marking the long-awaited return. Danish and Russian officials have gone through years of negotiations to bring about the return, intended to draw a line under the bloody overthrow of the imperial family of Nicholas II by the Bolshevik regime of Vladimir Lenin. The coffin of the Danish-born empress will lie in state until Thursday in Peterhof's Alexander Nevsky church, some 32 kilometres (20 miles) southeast of the former imperial capital Saint Petersburg.

It will then be driven to the Catherine Palace in the town of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg, where there will be another brief religious ceremony, before it is driven through the streets of Saint Petersburg to Saint Isaac's cathedral. There, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II will hold a funeral service before the funeral procession finally travels to the Peter and Paul fortress on the Neva river. The ceremonies culminate with the burial of Maria Fyodorovna's remains next to her husband, Tsar Alexander III, in the Romanov family vault in the fortress, in accordance with her wishes. She will be the last empress to be buried in the Romanov vault where every tsar and tsarina since Peter the Great (1672-1725) is buried. The return comes 140 years to the day after the young Princess Dagmar, who was born in 1847, first set foot on Russian soil to marry Alexander. It is also 87 years since she fled Russia at the age of 71, together with her two daughters Ksenya and Olga, rescued from the Crimea by a British cruiser.

She lived unhappily in her native Denmark until her death at the age of 81, according to Prince Dmitry Romanov, the great nephew of Alexander II, who now lives in Denmark. At a solemn send-off ceremony Saturday in Copenhagen's Roskilde cathedral, the empress' great-great grandson, Paul Edward Kulikovsky, thanked President Vladimir Putin and Queen Margrethe "for enabling Empress Dagmar to be reburied next to the man she loved and to return to the country where she lived for 52 years". Russia's post-Soviet leaders have carried out a series of such reburials in recent years in an effort to heal the rifts left by the revolution. Nicholas II was reburied with his wife and three daughters in Saint Petersburg in 1998, while White Russian military leader Anton Denikin was reburied last year. Nicholas abdicated during the 1917 revolution and he and his family were executed by Lenin's secret police in the city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural mountains on July 17, 1918 -- eight months after the Bolsheviks seized power.

Descendants of the Romanov dynasty, members of other European royal families, as well as representatives of the Danish and Russian governments are expected to attend this week's ceremonies. -------------- Thursday September 28, 7:35 PM Reuters Russia reburies empress in imperial crypt By Christian Lowe ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russia reburied on Thursday the mother of its last tsar, forced into exile by the Bolshevik revolution, in an act of reconciliation with the country's bloody past. Empress Maria Fyodorovna fled Russia after her son, Tsar Nicholas II, was murdered by Bolsheviks. Eighty seven years on, she was reburied beside her son and husband in accordance with her final wishes. As a choir sang the Orthodox liturgy, eight black-suited men lowered her coffin down into the imperial crypt as the St Peter and Paul cathedral, resting place for the Russian tsars since Peter the Great. Danish Crown Prince Frederick and descendants of the Romanov family filed past sprinkling earth onto the coffin. The white marble cover of the crypt was then put back in place. Artillery guns fired a salute and flags around the cathedral in St Petersburg, Russia's former imperial capital, flew at half mast.

The return of the empress's remains from Denmark was a personal initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former Soviet spy who has revived some of Russia's old imperial grandeur to symbolise his country's revival. "This will be another sign that Russia is overcoming the enmity and divisions brought by the revolution and civil war," Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II, who led a mourning ceremony in St Isaac's cathedral before the burial, told the preachers. CLOSES CHAPTER The burial closes a chapter in Russian history left open for decades: the former empress was the only ruler from the Romanov dynasty not buried in the crypt. "I am convinced that the best tribute to her memory will be a resurgent Russia that will once again go along the path of Christ, a Russia that strives to live in wisdom and in truth and by the eternal moral laws," Alexiy said. Unless Russia revives its monarchy -- which is highly unlikely -- she will be the last to be buried there. Maria Fyodorovna was born as Princess Dagmar into Denmark's royal family. She changed her name and converted to Russian Orthodoxy when she married the man who later became Russia's Alexander III. She died in exile in Denmark in 1928.

Putin did not attend the ceremony. The reburial was earlier postponed after Moscow accused Denmark of giving refuge to violent Chechen separatists. The issue still clouds relations. Many Russians view Maria Fyodorovna with affection because they associate her with a golden era of the Russian empire. After her son took over, the country slipped into war and misrule that eventually led to the revolution. "She was one of our better empresses. She did not meddle in politics and she lived a good Russian life," said Yevgeny Levashov, a 77-year-old pensioner. "I think it is worth reburying her. A wife should be laid to rest next to her husband." --------------- Russian czar's mother's remains interred By IRINA TITOVA, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 28, 11:01 AM ET ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - Cannon shots boomed, motorists honked their horns and church bells tolled as the remains of the Danish-born empress who was the mother of Russia's last czar were interred in the Romanovs' royal crypt 78 years after her death.

ADVERTISEMENT Czarina Maria Feodorovna was the mother of Nicholas II, who was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. She fled to Denmark in 1919 and died in 1928. The empress regarded the last decade of her life as exile, and wished to be buried in Russia. Russian and Danish guards placed the wooden casket, covered with a bright yellow flag, near her husband, Czar Alexander III, in the royal crypt at the cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress on an island in the Neva River, as an orchestra played solemn music. A marble sarcophagus baring Maria Feodorovna's name was then placed in the cathedral. "I am very glad that Empress Maria Feodorovna will now again be with her husband and her children ... it's great that they fulfilled the wish of Maria Feodorovna to be buried next to her family," said Alevtina Batalova, a 64-year-old former teacher who came to catch a glimpse of the procession. Several hundred officials, guests and foreign dignitaries, including members of the British and Danish royal families, attended the ceremony, many holding candles and white roses and most of them wearing black.

Many of the women wore broad-brimmed black mourning hats. Tatiana Erdman, a great-great-granddaughter of Maria Feodorovna who lives in Colorado, said she was deeply moved by the occasion. "It's very significant that Maria Feodorovna has finally returned home," Erdman told The Associated Press. "This event is also very meaningful because it gathers the big family of the Romanovs." The pomp-filled events began with Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II leading prayers in St. Isaac's Cathedral, the principal church of the Romanov dynasty. He praised Maria Feodorovna as a true daughter of Russia. "Having fallen deeply in love with the Russian people, the empress devoted a great deal of effort for the benefit of the Russian fatherland," Alexy said. "Her soul ached for Russia." As the procession moved around the city, people crossed themselves, military officers saluted the cortege, and car drivers blew horns. Many Russians felt the return of the czarina's remains was a meaningful step in restoring their appreciation of their country's complicated and tormented history.

Since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Romanov family have been working for the remains of Maria Feodorovna to be sent to Russia. "Today we have fulfilled the innermost will of the empress," said Culture Minister Alexander Sokolov. "It means the time has come to fill the gaps in our history and culture." Maria Feodorovna initially was betrothed to Czar Alexander II's son, Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich, but he died when the princess was 17. In his will, he asked that she marry his brother, which she did the following year, in 1866. Her husband became czar in 1881 after the moderately reform-minded Alexander II was assassinated; Alexander III died in 1894. --------------------------------------- People enter the Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress for a burial ceremony for Czarina Maria Feodorovna in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2006.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II on Thursday led burial ceremonies for Czarina Maria Feodorovna, the Danish-born empress whose remains are to be interred in her adopted land 78 years after her death. Maria Feodorovna was the mother of Russia's last czar, Nicholas II, who was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. She went into exile in Denmark in 1919 and died in 1928. (AP Photo/Ivan Secretarev) Danish guards of honour carry the coffin of Maria Fyodorovna, mother of Russia's last tsar, covered by an old Russian standard flag [the flag of the imperial family--MD] upon their arrival to St Petersburg. Fyodorovna's remains have arrived back in the country aboard a Danish naval frigate, 87 years after she fled the Bolshevik revolution, organisers said.(AFP/Interpress/Yevgeni Asmolov) An honour guard of Russian servicemen carry the coffin with the remains of Empress Maria Fyodorovna, the wife of Tsar Alexander III and mother of Russia's last monarch, Nicholas II, in St. Isaac's cathedral in St.

Petersburg, September 28, 2006. (Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters) Russian and Danish guards carry a wooden casket with remains of Czarina Maria Feodorovna during a funeral ceremony in the St. Isaac's Cathedral, the principal church of the Romanov dynasty, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2006. Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II on Thursday led burial ceremonies for Czarina Maria Feodorovna, the Danish-born empress whose remains are to be interred in her adopted land 78 years after her death. Maria Feodorovna was the mother of Russia's last czar, Nicholas II, who was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. She went into exile in Denmark in 1919 and died in 1928. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) A Russian woman bows as she mourns near the coffin containing the remains of Czarina Maria Feodorovna in Peterhof, outside St.Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006.

The remains arrived in Russia from Denmark and will be buried near the grave of Russian Czar Alexander III, Czarina's husband, in St. Peter and St. Paul's Cathedral in St. Petersburg on Thursday. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) Russian priests pray near a coffin of Russian Empress Maria Fyodorovna during a reburial ceremony in a church in St.Petersburg, September 26. Fyodorovna, the mother of the last Russian tsar, has been laid to rest next to her son in Russia's former royal capital Saint Petersburg following the return of her remains from Denmark, 87 years after she fled the Bolshevik revolution.(AFP/Interpress/File/Alexander Nikolayev) A reburial ceremony is held in St Isaac's Cathedral in St Petersburg for empress Maria Fyodorovna, the mother of Russia's last tsar. After the ceremony the coffin was carried to the Peter and Paul Fortress, the resting place of Russian tsars. Members of the Romanov family and from several European royal families attended. Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II led the proceedings and said of Maria Fyodorovna: "Her soul ached for Russia".

Her final resting place was beside the graves of her husband and son. Russia's 'A List' Begs Off Attending Czar's Funeral - The New York Times The New York Times World |Russia's 'A List' Begs Off Attending Czar's Funeral Search Russia's 'A List' Begs Off Attending Czar's Funeral By CELESTINE BOHLEN Continue reading the main story The burial of the often-disturbed remains of Nicholas II, Russia's last Czar, and his family next month was planned as an occasion rich in pomp and symbolism, complete with honor guards, a solemn procession through the streets of the old imperial capital of St. Petersburg and a 19-volley salute. But with the recent announcements that neither the head of the Russian Orthodox Church nor President Boris N. Yeltsin nor representatives of Russia's old nobility, including members of the Czar's own Romanov family, will attend, Russia's last royal burial has been downgraded from an event of state to an unusually elaborate church service. The burial is to be held 80 years after the Czar and his family were executed in a basement in the city of Yekaterinburg.

As the bottom falls out of the guest list, preparations for the ceremony have been quietly scaled back. ''It will be modest, without pomposity, without excessive spending,'' said Deputy Prime Minister Boris Y. Nemtsov, who is charged with organizing the event. He added that it was Russia's ''historic duty and human responsibility'' to put the royal family's remains to rest. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Instead of a hoped-for moment of national reconciliation, the burial has reopened two of the most delicate debates that have swirled around Nicholas II -- the authenticity of the bones unearthed outside Yekaterinburg, and the Czar's proper place in history. He is venerated by some Russians as a martyr, derided by others as a weakling and a despot, but seen by most as a victim of one of the Russian Revolution's most cold-blooded crimes. The Czar, his wife, Alexandra, their five children and four family attendants were banished to the city of Yekaterinburg as Russia was swept by civil war.

On July 17, 1918, they were herded into a cellar room by their Bolshevik captors and killed in fusillade of bullets and stabs of bayonets. The Czar had been forced to abdicate in March 1917. Bones found at the bottom of a pit outside Yekaterinburg in 1979 were kept secret until 1991, when Russians were finally allowed to explore the violent history of the Bolshevik Revolution. Since then, the remains of Russia's royal family have been in restless limbo, submitted to a series of scientifically conclusive forensic tests that have still failed to produce unanimity on their identity, and battled over by regions competing for the honor of their burial place. Ostensibly, it was the issue of the disputed bones that drove the Russian Orthodox Church to announce last week that Aleksy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, would not attend the ceremonies, citing a ''split in the church and secular society'' over the authenticity of the remains.

The church's Holy Synod called the split ''obviously confrontational and painful.'' The burial service (funeral services for the Czar and his family were held in Russia soon after their death in 1918) will be officiated by a local priest on July 17 at the Romanov family vault inside the Petropavlovsk Fortress, while Aleksy II will lead the faithful in prayers on that day for ''all those killed at the time of severe persecution.'' No sooner did the church make its announcement than others who had been invited began to decline, in rapid succession. Speaking at a conference of nobility clubs that opened with the singing of the old Russian imperial anthem ''God Save the Czar,'' Andrei Golitsyn, head of the Russian Noble Assembly, announced that its members, too, would stay away. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to.

Sign Up Like the church, he said, the assembly believes that a Government commission established to examine the authenticity of the bones had ''overlooked a number of questions that arouse doubts and explanations contradicting the official one.'' Advertisement Continue reading the main story Some Romanovs will attend the ceremonies, but Grand Duchess Maria, the head of the house, has said she will make a final decision at the end of this month. By Tuesday, Mr. Yeltsin confirmed that he would not attend, a decision seen as heavily influenced by the church. ''Let's put it this way,'' said Viktor Aksyuchits, an aide to Mr. Nemtsov. ''Yeltsin is not coming because the Patriarch will not be there. The level of representation has definitely been lowered.'' Mr. Aksyuchits said the church's real motives in keeping its distance from the burial had more to do with a division among its members, some of whom support a proposal to canonize Nicholas in the year 2000. ''For them, it would be more convenient to have the burial after canonization,'' he said. ''That is why they want to drag it out.

''We consider that that doubts about the authenticity will only redouble as long as there is no burial. The debates will always be there.'' After six years of research, including a DNA analysis done by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington and forensic work done in Russia and Britain, a Russian Government commission concluded in January that the skeletal remains were those of Nicholas, Alexandra, three of their five children and four family attendants. These findings confirmed a long-secret report by the Czar's chief executioner that two of the bodies taken from the Yekaterinburg cellar had been burned, and the rest buried. The missing bodies belong to the Romanov heir, Alexei, who was 13 when he was killed, and one of his sisters, either Maria, then 19, or her 17-year-old sister Anastasia, a romantic figure who keeps returning as a popular Hollywood legend. But critics of the commission complain that it cloaked its work in secrecy, which only led to new theories about the fate of the Czar's family. Some far-right Russian nationalists contend that the Czar was a victim of a conspiracy of Jews and Masons, while others steadfastly refuse to believe any evidence that was collected during the Soviet era.

The proposal to canonize Nicholas II has powerful supporters within the Russian Orthodox Church, which would be following the example set by the emigre-founded Russian Church Abroad, which has venerated Nicholas II and other members of the Romanov family, along with tens of thousands of other victims of the Russian Revolution, as martyrs for their faith since 1981. Advertisement Continue reading the main story ''The possibility of canonization is the reason why the church is dealing with the issue of authenticity very attentively,'' said the Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin, secretary for church and society at the Moscow Patriarchate. ''If someone is canonized, then their remains are venerated as relics. And there can be no doubt about the authenticity of a holy relic.'' Russia exhumes bones of murdered Tsar Nicholas and wife - BBC News BBC News Russia exhumes bones of murdered Tsar Nicholas and wife 24 September 2015 Close share panel Media captionThe Romanov family members were killed by revolutionary Bolsheviks Russian investigators have exhumed the remains of the last tsar and his wife, as they re-examine their 1918 murders.

Samples were taken from Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and from the bloodstained uniform of Alexander II, Nicholas's grandfather, killed in 1881. The Romanov family members, who were killed by revolutionary Bolsheviks, are buried at a St Petersburg cathedral. The Orthodox Church wants to confirm family links before other relatives can be reburied with them. The long-running murder case had been closed in 1998, after DNA tests authenticated the Romanov remains found in a mass grave in the Urals in 1991. But the DNA tests did not convince some Russian Orthodox Church members, because the remains of two - Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria - were found only in 2007, at a different spot in the Urals. The Investigative Committee, a state body, says new checks are needed in order to authenticate the remains of those two. Russia plans to rebury Alexei and Maria alongside the rest of the family in St Petersburg's Peter and Paul Cathedral. But for that to happen the Church wants to be certain about the remains.

Image caption The four Romanov princesses with their brother Alexei Hail of bullets Tsar Nicholas II, Alexandra, their four daughters - grand duchesses Anastasia, Maria, Olga and Tatiana - their son the Tsarevich Alexei and four royal staff members were murdered in the cellar of a house in Yekaterinburg in 1918. One night they were lined up as if for a family photo, and then a Bolshevik firing squad killed them in a hail of bullets, according to witness accounts. Those who did not die immediately were bayonetted. The royal couple and three daughters were formally reburied on 17 July 1998 - the 80th anniversary of the murder. They were canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000. Alexei and Maria are also likely to be canonised before the 100th anniversary in 2018. Their remains are currently kept at the Russian State Archives. The new investigation also involves taking samples from Alexandra's sister the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, buried in Jerusalem. Only now can Russian investigators get access to those remains.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Rasputin (second from left), a self-styled holy man, exerted great influence at the Romanov court Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The tsar and his family at Tsarskoye Selo palace near St Petersburg in 1916 Support from descendants The Romanovs were ousted from power and exiled in 1917, shortly before the communist Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government. Documents from the so-called "White Guards Investigation" concerning the family's 1918 murder will also be studied. They came to light in the past four years. Tsar Alexander II was killed by a bomb thrown by a "People's Will" revolutionary in 1881, and buried in his military uniform in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. A lawyer for Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, a descendant of the murdered Romanovs, said she supported the new investigation. Quoted by Russia's Tass news agency, lawyer German Lukyanov said "not all aspects of the imperial family's murder were explained in the case, and not all the Russian Orthodox Church's questions were answered fully and clearly".

"The grand duchess hopes that the examination of the Yekaterinburg remains will be scientific... The truth must be established in this case, with an answer to the main question: whose are these remains?" BBC NEWS | Europe | Romanovs laid to rest Friday, 17 July, 1998, 14:51 GMT 15:51 UK Romanovs laid to rest Nicholas II, his wife, and three of his children, are reburied The last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his family have been buried in St Petersburg's St Peter and Paul Cathedral, exactly 80 years after their execution by Bolshevik revolutionaries. The coffins were taken to St Catherine Chapel The nine coffins bearing the remains of Nicholas II, his wife, three of his children and four loyal staff were interred in the crypt of the cathedral's St Catherine Chapel, the resting place of Russian emperors since the reign of Peter the Great. Addressing the funeral ceremony, President Boris Yeltsin described the murder of the Russian royal family as one of the most shameful pages in Russian history, and urged Russians to close a "bloody century" with repentance.

Yeltsin: asks for repentence He said: "Today is a historic day for Russia. For many years, we kept quiet about this monstrous crime, but the truth has to be spoken." Mr Yeltsin said he had no choice but to attend this funeral in consideration of the fact that the funeral presented a historical chance for the Russian people to exculpate themselves from the sins of their fathers, and the sins of the murder of their Romanov family. The tsar and his family died in Yekaterinburg On behalf of the Romanov family, Prince Nikolay Romanov, expressed delight at the Russian president's decision to attend the funeral. "We understand that he is a very busy person and has many other issues he has to deal with in the interests of and for the good of Russia but, even so, he has found the time to come," the prince told a Russian news agency. The funeral takes place after 80 years Dozens of the Tsar's relatives and diplomats from more than 50 countries watched the Tsar's coffin being laid to rest as cathedral bells tolled and soldiers gave a 19-gun salute.

The burial was the final stage of a three-day ceremony which has run into deep controversy: the Orthodox Church have disputed the authenticity of the remains, while some Russians felt the proceedings were not grand enough. President Yeltsin initially refused to attend the burial ceremony out of respect to the Russian Orthodox Church but then announced he would be attending the burial after all. He said he had changed his mind so that the current generation of Russians could atone for the sins of their ancestors. The ceremony in Russia's old imperial capital, was intended to be a gesture of national reconciliation and atonement for the country's violent past. Instead, the event caused sharp divisions. Authenticity of Tsar Nicholas II's remains is disputed Scientists say the bones are 97% likely to be those of Tsar Nicholas II and other members of the Romanov family shot by a Bolshevik firing squad. But the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Russia, Alexei II, has disputed the authenticity of the findings and refused to officiate at the burial. As a result, bishops were banned from taking part in the funeral ceremony and only junior clerics were allowed to participate.

Patriarch Alexei conducted an alternative memorial service outside Moscow after a rival branch of the Romanov family complained that the official burial was not grand enough. There was also a dispute over which city should become their final resting place: Yekaterinburg where the remains were found seven years ago, Moscow, as the present Russian capital, or St Petersburg, the location of the burial grounds of the Tsars.

WATCH/LISTEN The Royal Martyrs Burial In Russia The Royal Martyrs Burial In Russia Tsar Nicholas II And His Family Written by Father Nektarios Serfes Boise, Idaho U.S.A on the 28th of February 1998 Tsar Nicholas II And His Family "...armed guards entered a basement in the Ipatiev House, Ekaterinburg, (Ed.Ykaterinburg) and their leader rapped out a sentence to a man who sat on a wooden chair and his family and a few servants: 'Nicholas Alexandrovich, by order of the Regional Soviet of the Urals, you are to be shot, along with all your family.' The moment is frozen in time, as in a frozen video recording: the deposed Tsar with Alexei, the Tsarevich, seated beside him - deathly pale, because he has recently suffered a severe hemorrhage; Alexandra seated to the side; standing behind, the four young Grand Duchesses, Anastasia with her pet dog in her arms; doctor, valet, cook and housemaid, also standing. In is night.

They were wakened and told they must dress quickly, there were being moved elsewhere: the White Army in the East was moving close. But the paused video moved on: Nicholas scarcely had time to leap to his feet and utter 'Chto'? - 'What?' - before Yakoff Yurovsky shot him in the head, then turned and fired two shots at Alexei. The other Chekists opened fire. The Empress and one of her daughters managed to cross themselves before the bullets shattered jewels hidden in heavily padded brassieres. Another volley finished the servants. Silence fell; the Tsarevich moaned, whereupon Yurovsky fired two more shots into him. Anastasia moaned too, though she had scarcely been wounded; one of the guards drove his bayonet into her several times, then smashed her pet dog's head with his rifle butt. The dark room was awash with blood." ("Alexander Solzhenitsyn A Century In His Life", by D.M.Thomas, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1998., p. 30).

he burial, with all due honor and ceremony, of the Royal Martyrs Tsar Nicholas II and his beloved family will take place on 17 July 1988, eighty years to the day after they were brutally executed by the Bolsheviks. The Russian Government has decided today, 27th February 1998, that the remains of the Royal Martyrs will be interred in the Royal vault at the Cathedral of Ss. Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg, Russia. A Russian Orthodox funeral will be performed, with a procession to the Cathedral. These holy remains were discovered near Yekaterinbug, some 900 miles east of Moscow, in July 1991. This past January (following earlier scientific tests), a second DNA test was performed under the supervision of the First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, who said President Boris Yelstin gave the cabinet full authority over the plans for the royal burial.

Boris Nemtsov had several discussions, on both the final conclusions on the DNA testing, and plans for the funeral for all of the Royal Martyrs, with President Boris Yeltsin and the Russian Orthodox Church of the Patriarchate in Moscow, whose ruling Hierarch is His All Holiness Patriarch Alexis, The Patriarch reported on these conclusions and plans to a Synod of Bishops meeting held late this past February. There is no doubt many officials, as well as the Church hierarchy, have now fully approved the funeral arrangements for the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II and his family. It has been as reported that the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia has said: "it would be sacrilegious to keep them (the remains) in the police morgue in Yekaterinburg any longer". Since last January (1988), a number of rumors have spread as to whether the bones found in Ykaterinburg where really those of the Tsar and his family.

Once the results of the second DNA test were shown to be conclusive, proposals for the funeral arrangements began to appear, and questions were asked as to how Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow would react to the proposed funeral; this was a matter of constant concern throughout Russia and across the world. The Orthodox Church in Russia held a Synod of Bishops meeting in Moscow at which the matter of the Royal funeral was high on the agenda. World media stated to report on the joyful outcome of this Synod on February 27th-28th, and a final statement appeared on the 28th, giving the Synod's approval to the funeral taking place. The protracted debate among the bishops within the Moscow Patriarchate was no longer a problem, guided as they were by the presence and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. They gave their blessing to this momentous and historic event, and offered to participate fully in the funeral services. All things must be discerned by the Spirit of God, and it was spiritually correct for His Holiness Patriarch Alexis and his Synod of Bishops to express their concerns. But it was also reported, however, that other influences might again delay these procedures.

By the grace and the sanctification of our Lord God at last all Christians can rejoice and be thankful! The funeral of the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II will now take place. All Christians should certainly rejoice on hearing this joyful news - joyful not least because it has been quite long enough for the bones of the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II and his most beloved family to have been without a resting place - for their own peace and for the peace of all those who love the Royal Martyrs of Russia. It is for so many of us a great relief, after much strain and debate, that finally the way has been cleared for the burial of the last soldier of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II and his family, in a place that he had earlier desired: in the Fortress of St. Petersburg, at the Russian Orthodox Church of Ss. Peter and Paul.

This funeral will indeed be the funeral of the century for both all Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians, and for a multitude of non-Orthodox believers who have a sincere love for all the Royal Martyrs Without doubt this is a time to give thanks to those who have given so much time and so many prayers, in their devotion to the Royal Martyrs, as well as those who have joined in the sincere concern for the holy burial of the this great and loving family - a family who simply loved one another, God, His Church, and the people of Russia. These Royal Martyrs have become a great example of a "family" not only in Russia, but throughout the world. Each individual member of the family had a unique spiritual quality, and were outstanding personalities, as we hear from the many people who have expressed an honorable respect for all of the Royal Family. These special qualities have ensured that as a family, and as individuals, they are still being discussed today, eighty years later! Several videos have been made, there are innumerable books, and an increasing number of internet web sites.

It is of course true that many have sought to dishonor the Tsar-Martyr and his Family, but after the archives in Moscow began to open up to the Western world, and the documents, diaries, films and photographs of the Imperial Family became available for study, those who had formerly been critical had to reassess their position, and many began to "turn around" with a different, respectful attitude. What is also so remarkable and joyful about this forthcoming funeral of the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II and his beloved family is that it gives a great deal of inner spiritual peace to all those who also walked behind his Imperial Majesty in the procession of martyrdom. We have, of course countless numbers of Holy New Martyrs -millions upon millions of them. We have those who have come to the West and expressed with great dismay, that they never saw their Father, Mother, Uncle, Aunt, Brother, Sister, or friend ever again, and often it has been remarked, " I simply have not ever seem them again, as perhaps they ended up in the Gulag!" A "gulag" is a concentration camp, best described by the Russian historian Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Orthodox publications and excerpts of these accounts of the slaughter of the Russian Orthodox faithful, and other religions, in Russia and throughout other communists countries, have been available for many years, and sadly enough we have turned our backs and not accepted the realistic facts and information provided. Even as I present this web site to you, every two years the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, meets to discuss Church issues, and each time they convene this Synod several martyrs are added to the list of other martyrs in the Orthodox Church. It will perhaps take the remaining years for the 20th Century to perhaps - and I repeat perhaps - conclude this identification of the martyrs and martyrdoms that have occurred since the October 1917 Russian Bolshevik Revolution. Maybe this work will continue well into the next century. Now that the Funeral of the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II and his family will take place in St.

Petersburg, we must now put our feelings and hurts behind us, and begin to open up our minds, hearts and soul with forgiveness, looking forward to the blessed day of17th of July in 1998, as a day of a spiritual renewal and repentance for all of Russia, and for all those who have perhaps turned it's back against this lovely family, headed by a devoted man of peace and goodwill for all men! Let us all wipe away all ill feelings, and start on a new spiritual path of love and kindness towards one another, as we deeply absorb the truth that our God loves us too. Our Lord God will be far more pleased with us when each of us begins to realize that He too has forgiven us all. St. Petersburg, Russia, will indeed be a continual flow of many pilgrims. Some will simply want to observe; others will come to weep, and to pray at this tomb of the most holy Martyrs Tsar Nicholas and his family. We must not, exploit this tomb. Within these walls we can experience the peace and the love Almighty God has for us.

It is so important that, by self-discipline and an open heart to God we will not be "ripped off by commercialism", as one kind person, John Wilson Smith from England, has recently written: "This must remain a fundamentally Holy place, a focus for the activity of the Holy Spirit not only in the lives of the Russian people, but to all who will come." In conclusion let us all give thanks for those around the world, and in Russia, both the present Government, and to the Venerable Patriarch Alexis and his Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, all of whom come to agree that this holy funeral should take place. We are thankful, too, for all who have helped in this loving, just, honorable cause, in burying the "Last Soldier, our Dear Christian friends, Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, Tsarevich Alexis, and Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia, and their devoted friends and servants". To the present relatives, and to the current Royal Families who are related to this family. I certainly rejoice in the Lord our God with you.

Finally without any doubts, and with great joy, let us all give thanks unto our Lord God, and to His Holy New Martyrs and Saints. Thanks be to God for all things! Peace be unto Your loving souls Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II and his Family, and to all those in Russia, and around the world who love You and continue onward with more love. God be merciful until us all, and forgive us! Editors notes: I certainly would like to thank John Wilson Smith for his kind assistance in the presentation of this text, and I would also like to thank Bob Atchison for his kind permission for the photographs used for the presentation of this web site. Most Holy Royal Martyrs Tsar-Nicholas II And Family,

Question: Which Russian leader was buried in 1998 in his family's vault?
Answer: Tsar Nicholas II